The present invention relates to a level correction for a solid-state image pickup apparatus (e.g., a digital still camera) including a solid-state image pickup device that includes a photoelectric conversion section divided into a plurality of blocks, and readout amplifiers for the respective blocks.
In recent years, along with the rapidly increasing demand in the field of CCD (charge coupled device) cameras such as digital still cameras and digital video cameras, there is an increasing demand for increasing the number of pixels and increasing the speed. However, if the number of pixels is increased, it takes more time to read out and transfer signal charges, thereby preventing the speed from being increased, i.e., there is a trade-off relationship therebetween. As a solution to this, it is effective to employ a parallel readout type solid-state image pickup device including a photoelectric conversion section divided into a plurality of blocks and readout amplifiers for the respective blocks.
In a case where such a parallel readout type solid-state image pickup device is used, it is necessary to correct gray level variations in the outputs from the plurality of readout amplifiers, and a non-linear level correction is necessary.